Thursday, October 5, 2017

Why are Mass Shootings (and Gun Violence in general) more common in America?

This is the retort I've been getting to my point in my previous post, about comparing Banning Guns to Alcohol or Drug prohibition.

There are many reasons why America would have more then many other countries.  Even Michael Moore in his very Pro Gun Control documentary Bowling for Columbine does not conclude having legal access to Guns is the reason, he blames it on the Fear Mongering in our news media.

It has repeatedly been proven that high crime rates in general are a result of high poverty rates.  Something Liberals are frequently pointing out.  That's why minority communities have higher crime rates, because systemic racism keeps them poorer.

America is also the 3rd largest country in the world by Population.  The only two larger are not Western or even particularly westernized countries, so not so easy to compare.

The claim that America has by such a large margin more gun violence then any other country is dependent on a pretty specific definition of what a Mass Shooting is.  For one things gun based slaughter committed by Governments are not counted.

So on twitter I've been seeing a lot of citing of Australia and their strict Gun Laws issued after a mass shooting in 1996.  Saying boldly that there have been NO mass shooting in Australia since, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

Wikipedia's list of Massacres in Australia.

Frankly I think not counting these two 2014 incidents as "mass shootings" is offensive and disingenuous to their victims.  They are certainly included in what American Gun Control activists are claiming strict Gun Laws will prevent, American equivalents to these are aboslutly pointed to by them as part of our problem.

Meanwhile massacres not involving guns have happened plenty.  I know Gun Control advocates love to be dismissive of that point.  As if being killed by something other then a Gun is inherently less tragic.   The problem is they have an outright superstitious view of Guns, that every Gun is like the One Ring and you can't hold one without feeling an urge to use it.  Maybe it says more about them that they feel that way, I've held a Gun a few times and felt nothing special about it, I took it seriously, but felt no sense of godlike power from it.

And it's not like Australia was having an epidemic of these comparable to America's before.  Australia has a population of less then 25 million compared to America having over 300 Million.  They are inevitably going to have less of everything.

I feel confident an analysis of Canada or European nations would turn out the same.

Japan is another nation with strict Gun Laws the Gun Control advocates point to.

Problem is there are a lot of differences between Japan's Laws and America's Laws.  And most of them are NOT ones a Liberal would want to point to as good.  Japan is overall a very Conservative nation, in some ways the only "industrialized" nation to the right even of America.  Their Gun Ban is about the only thing Liberals would point to as a plus.  I'm kinda the opposite of Japan here, Gun Control is the only political issue on which I'm still a "conservative".

Just look at How Japan Uses Low Crime Rates to justify it's Cruel Prison System.  I've also seen Alt-Right blogs claim Japan has never been a victim of "Islamic Terrorism" because they don't have many Muslims and are actively seeking to keep it that way.  While not mentioning how Japan was the victim of a famous act of Buddhist Terrorism back in 1995, the Subway Sairn Gass Attack.

I hate to say this as an Otaku, but Japan is not a free country.  But I shouldn't hate to say that, so much of the Anime I watch is about Japan not being a Free country, Isekai is so popular right now because everyone living there wants out.  Just watch TheAnimeMan's WTF Japan videos on YouTube.

So my point is, even if you could convince me Gun Control would mean less violence.  That's not worth it.  I support Gun Rights for the same reason I oppose the Patriot Act and Trump's Muslim Ban.  I am intensely opposed to giving up Freedom out of Fear, when we do that, the Terrorists win.

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